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Dead Or Alive 4 Calls In for Some Halo Support

For weeks now, the rumor mill has been buzzing over the word that Tecmo's upcoming Dead or Alive 4 would be featuring a special guest star added to the fighting fray along with the regular cast of characters. Well, the official word came down on Wednesday as it was announced that the game would be featuring special material straight from Microsoft's best-selling Halo franchise.

In a joint press release, Tecmo and Bungie announced that Dead or Alive 4 will feature a new character known as Spartan-458, as well as a special space-themed environment designed around the Halo universe. According to the press release, the idea of mixing the two universes has been in the works for a couple of years, back when Bungie's Pete Parsons and Team Ninja's Tomonobu Itagaki, met at the E3. Both are huge fans of their respective studios' work and thought it would be a great idea to team up on a future project. Eventually, it was decided that the best way for the teams to work together was to introduce the hidden Halo character into Team Ninja's fighting franchise.

"The opportunity to work with Team Ninja and combine our powers to strike yet another blow in our quest for world domination, was too alluring to pass up," said Pete Parsons, Studios Manager at Bungie Studios, during a Game Informer interview in their January issue. "Plus, we just think the idea of putting a Spartan into a DoA game totally kicks ass."

Tomonobu Itagaki, Team Ninja's head producer, added, "Our first priority was, above all else, is to remain truthful to Bungie's original design and background material. Then, ideally we were able to add a bit of Team Ninja's distinctive flavor on top," he said. "Think about it for a second: do you honestly believe there is anything out there that can't be accomplished with the technologies of Bungie and Team Ninja put together?"

Dead or Alive 4 is scheduled to debut on Microsoft's Xbox 360 game console this holiday season right alongside the new system. In the meantime, check out our spotlight on both the Guys and Girls of DoA4.